A role for father, but it's hardly full employment (4,4)
I believe the answer is:
part time
'a role for father but it's hardly full employment' is the definition.
I can't judge whether this definition defines the answer.
'a role for father but it's' is the wordplay.
'a role' becomes 'part' (eg a part or role in a film).
'for' says to put letters next to each other.
'father but' becomes 'tim' (I can't justify this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'it' becomes 'e' ('e' can mean 'electronic' which is similar to 'IT').
'part'+'tim'+'e'='PART-TIME'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for part time that I've seen before include "temp?" , "One may find some workers like this" , "Not working a full week" , "Not fully committed" .)